Spanish court suspends Catalan parliament
Prime minister urges separatists to abandon plan so ‘more harm can be avoided’
BARCELONA, SPAIN— Spain’s constitutional court on Thursday suspended a session of the Catalan regional parliament to pre-empt separatist lawmakers from approving a unilateral declaration of independence.
The court’s decision is a further escalation in the territorial conflict over Catalonia, which held an independence referendum Sunday that Spanish courts declared illegal and suspended.
The latest move by the court is unlikely to resolve the dispute, Spain’s worst constitutional crisis since it embraced democracy in the 1970s.
Although there was no immediate reaction from Catalan authorities, separatist lawmakers could schedule another session, meet in an alternative venue or show up in defiance of the court order as scheduled Monday, which could prompt the police to intervene.
Catalan separatists say they are entitled to an independent state because of the region’s distinct language and culture. They say the referendum on independence was overwhelmingly approved, though less than half of eligible voters went to the polls, which Spanish national police tried to block, clashing with civilians.
The constitutional court made its decision at the request of the Catalan chapter of the Socialist party.
The Socialist leadership in Madrid opposes Catalan secession, but has also been raising the pressure on Mariano Rajoy, Spain’s conservative prime minister, to clarify what steps he will take to help defuse the conflict.
Rajoy has at his disposal a series of emergency powers to take full ad- ministrative control of Catalonia, including suspending the regional parliament for as long as deemed necessary.
Speaking before the court’s ruling, Rajoy did not detail his plans, but urged the separatists to abandon their planned independence decla- ration so that “more harm can be avoided.”
In an interview with EFE, Spain’s national news agency, Rajoy did not offer to hold talks with separatists and instead said that “the best solution, on which I think we all agree, is a return to legality.”